Yesterday at Disneyland my friends and i got stuck on the Roger Rabbit, ride, and I expressed that I was just glad that at wasn't at the top of the loop on the roller coaster. My friend said that that could never happen because of the reason stated above. Is that true?
2007-03-22 11:35:17 · 3 answers · asked by Sugarbaby 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
told ya! even if there wasnt enough momentum going into the loop it would maybe go upside down but then just come back down backwards, you would need some breaks at the top or something weird with the rails to happen to have it get stuck in mid turn. make mine the best answer since im the inspiration.
2007-03-22 16:09:55 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, that is true, but the laws of physics take care of that.
When a roller coaster car is going up, it is either being pulled up by chains on the rails or using its own momentum to make it over the curve. In case of the rails, the only way to get stuck at the top is if the rails stop working. In case the car is using its momentum to make it over the curve, engineers do make sure that the car's momentum is enough to take it over the curve by quite a bit, and even if the car didn't have enough velocity to make it over, it wouldn't simply get stuck at the top. It would fall to either side, because it's very unlikely that it'd be perfectly balanced.
2007-03-22 19:17:09 · answer #2 · answered by pedros2008 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, they are engineered so that at the bottom of the loop the kinetic energy is about 10% more than required to reach the top of the loop. This margin covers contingencies like wheel bearings not being adequately lubricated, wind, etc.
2007-03-22 19:15:25 · answer #3 · answered by Steve 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋